But the public hasn’t heard the last of Reza Moazami. He has formally complained to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal (BCHRT), claiming discrimination. His “religious dietary preferences” were allegedly ignored before his transfer last fall to a federal penitentiary.

Claiming he’s both a practicing Jew and a Muslim, Moazami says he was denied kosher meals and halal food while housed at the provincially run North Fraser Pre-Trial Centre during his lengthy pimping trial and sentencing process.

His culinary complaints might seem like a bad joke, but the BCHRT is taking them seriously. In a 14-page ruling this week, tribunal member Catherine McCreary allowed Moazami’s beef to proceed, while rejecting an application from B.C.’s Ministry of Justice to have the matter dismissed.

Moazami “cites numerous examples of occasions on which staff allegedly ignored or disrespected his religious dietary preferences,” McCreary ruled this week. “I cannot conclude that there is no reasonable prospect that Mr. Moazami’s complaint will be successful.”

An Iranian immigrant who arrived in Canada 20 years ago, Moazami claims his father is Muslim and his mother Jewish, and that he was “raised on Jewish customs and beliefs, including a kosher diet,” according to the BCHRT ruling. He says he “explored the Muslim faith” briefly while in custody awaiting trial, and requested halal meals before switching his focus to Judaism and asking for a kosher diet.

Eventually, the kosher meal requests were accommodated, according to this week’s ruling, but Moazami still wasn’t satisfied. He felt they “were not in line with kosher guidelines.” Specifically, he had suspicions about applesauce, cakes, muffins, bread, eggs, milk and ice cream served to inmates.

Food seems to preoccupy Moazami. During his pimping trial, he asked that B.C. Supreme Court sheriffs serve him two hamburgers over the lunch breaks, instead of the normal single serving. His lawyer specified McDonald’s Big Macs.

Madame Justice Catherine Bruce agreed to his request, and so ordered the Big Mac daily double. Curiously, Moazami never asked the sheriffs to serve him kosher or halal food, according to a BCHRT submission.

The pimp, it seems clear, is a canny, food-obsessed lunatic who knows how to game the system. But we're even crazier for handing him a forum in which to practice his lunacy and allowing him to play us for fools. And to do it under the guise of safeguarding his "human rights": that's the craziest thing of all.

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Scaramouche is my nom de Web. My real name is Mindy G. Alter, and I like to think of myself as a free speecher with a sense of humour. My bailiwick: fighting on behalf of all the good things that free speech helps safeguard, and doing my utmost to highlight the malevolence and imbicilities of those who oppose freedom, whomever they may be.